Former England lock Geoff Parling named Wallabies forwards coach

Geoff Parling has been appointed as Australia‘s new forwards coach under Dave Rennie.

The former Leicester, England and British & Irish Lion has been coaching at for the past two years at Melbourne Rebels, where he ended his playing career, and will now join the Wallabies set-up preparing for two away Tests against the All Blacks and the Rugby Championship.

Parling, 36, has been one component behind the steady progress made by the Rebels, who ended their duck of having never reached a final of a major competition to play the Reds in a second-versus-third play-off in the Super Rugby AU knockout stage.

And although the the Rebels fell to defeat, 25-13, Rennie has been impressed by the results of Parling’s work with the lineout.

In a brief statement, Wallabies head coach Rennie said of Parling: “He is a good man. He’s technically very strong around lineout and maul and he has impressed me with his work ethic to get up to speed over the last two weeks.”

Rennie appears to making a clean break from the Wallabies failure in Japan last autumn, exiting the World Cup at the quarter-final stage where they lost to England.

The former Glasgow Warriors director of rugby named 16 uncapped players in his first squad announcement as Wallabies coach.

A 44-man squad will fly out to New Zealand next month for two Tests against the All Blacks, with Parling set to work with newcomers Angus Bell, Pone Fa’amausili, Tom Horton, Trevor Hosea, Lachie Swinton, Fraser McReight and Harry Wilson in the pack.

Parling commented: “There is some great talent here, but we won’t get anywhere without hard work. I have high expectations of the group and am looking forward to seeing them rip in.”